On this page (5 sections)
Where it is
The Wetherspoons at Stansted is The Windmill, and it sits airside, in the main departure lounge, after security. You reach it once you are checked in and through the search, not while you are waiting landside, so it is a place to head for after security rather than before. It occupies a corner of Foster and Partners' terminal, on the old site of a windmill and the ancient village of Cooper's End, which is where the name comes from.
There is a second, smaller outlet: a Wetherspoon Express near gates 20 to 39, in Satellite 2, for a quick drink or snack close to boarding. The Express is a pared-back format, drinks and snacks but no hot food and no real ale, so for the full pub experience and the breakfast you want The Windmill in the main lounge. Both are airside.
Opening hours
The Windmill is open daily from 03:00 to 22:00, the airport's own published hours. That early start is the point at Stansted, where the heaviest departure wave is the 05:00 to 09:00 Ryanair and Jet2 bank, so the pub is one of the few places open for a proper breakfast or a coffee before a dawn flight.
Hours can shift a little with the flying day and the redevelopment, so if your flight is unusually early or late it is worth a glance at the airport's restaurants page first. Either way, the gate, not the pub, sets your deadline: keep an eye on the boards and leave time for the walk, especially if your gate is in Satellite 3, which is reached on foot. Live times are on the departures board.
Food and drink
It is a standard Wetherspoons, which is exactly why people seek it out: the full menu of pub classics, burgers, pizzas and the like, and the well-known breakfast served until 11am, from the traditional fry-up down to a bacon roll, with the bottomless tea and coffee. At the bar there are usually several real ales alongside the wines, lagers and the rest of the range.
The Express by the gates is the opposite end of the scale: cold drinks and snacks for a last quick stop before boarding, with no kitchen. If you want to sit down and eat, The Windmill is the one. For the wider choice on the concourse, from Pret A Manger to the Italian kitchen, see the restaurants and bars page.
How to order
Two ways, the same as any Wetherspoons. You can order on the Wetherspoon app: find your table number, order and pay on your phone, and it is brought to you, which beats queuing at the bar when the pub is busy with an early wave. Or order at the bar in the usual way, quoting your table number for food. There is free Wi-Fi in the pub, useful if you would rather not burn mobile data before you fly.
One practical tip for the early crowd: the pub fills fast around the 05:00 to 07:00 departures, so the app is often quicker than the bar at peak. Grab a table first, then order to it.
Is it actually cheap?
Yes and no, and it is worth being clear. Inside the terminal, The Windmill is the cheapest sit-down breakfast and pint you will find, which is why it is reliably the busiest place airside. Against the rest of the airport food, it wins on value comfortably.
Against a Wetherspoons on the high street, though, it is dearer. Airport branches charge more than town ones, so a pint or a fry-up costs more here than at your local Spoons. That is the airport mark-up, not a Windmill quirk, and it applies to every food outlet in the terminal. So treat it as the value choice at Stansted, not as cheap by Wetherspoon standards. If you want to spend less still, Boots does a meal deal, and the airside shops sell drinks and snacks to take to the gate.